Monday, September 8, 2014

Canterbury Cathedral

St Augustine, the first
Archbishop of Canterbury, arrived on the coast of Kent as a missionary to
England in 597 AD. He came from Rome, sent by Pope Gregory the Great. It is
said that Gregory had been struck by the beauty of Angle slaves he saw for sale
in the city market and despatched Augustine and some monks to convert them to
Christianity. Augustine was given a church at Canterbury (St Martin’s, after St
Martin of Tours, still standing today) by the local King, Ethelbert whose Queen,
Bertha, a French Princess, was already a Christian. This building had been a
place of worship during the Roman occupation of Britain and is the oldest
church in England still in use.

Augustine had been consecrated a bishop in
France and was later made an archbishop by the Pope. He established his seat
within the Roman city walls (the word cathedral is derived from the Latin word
for a chair ‘cathedra’, which is itself taken from the Greek ‘kathedra’ meaning
seat.) and built the first cathedral there, becoming the first Archbishop of
Canterbury. Since that time, there has been a community around the Cathedral
offering daily prayer to God; this community is arguably the oldest
organisation in the English speaking world. The present Archbishop, The Most Revd
Justin Welby, is 105th in the line of succession from Augustine. Until the 10th
century, the Cathedral community lived as the household of the Archbishop.
During the 10th century, it became a formal community of Benedictine monks,
which continued until the monastery was dissolved by King Henry VIII in 1540.

Augustine’s original building
lies beneath the floor of the Nave– it was extensively rebuilt and enlarged by
the Saxons, and the Cathedral was rebuilt completely by the Normans in 1070
following a major fire. There have been many additions to the building over the
last nine hundred years, but parts of the Quire and some of the windows and
their stained glass date from the 12th century.

By 1077, Archbishop Lanfranc had
rebuilt it as a Norman church, described as “nearly perfect”. A staircase and
parts of the North Wall – in the area of the North West transept also called
the Martyrdom – remain from that building.

The work of the Cathedral as a
monastery came to an end in 1540, when the monastery was closed on the orders
of King Henry VIII. Its role as a place of prayer continued – as it does to
this day. Once the monastery had been suppressed, responsibility for the
services and upkeep was given to a group of clergy known as the Dean and
Chapter. Today, the Cathedral is still governed by the Dean and four Canons,
together (in recent years) with four lay people and the Archdeacon of
Maidstone.

During the Civil War of the 1640s, the
Cathedral suffered damage at the hands of the Puritans; much of the medieval
stained glass was smashed and horses were stabled in the Nave. After the
Restoration in 1660, several years were spent in repairing the building. In the
early 19th Century, the North West tower was found to be dangerous, and,
although it dated from Lanfranc’s time, it was demolished in the early 1830s
and replaced by a copy of the South West tower, thus giving a symmetrical
appearance to the west end of the Cathedral. During the Second World War, the
Precincts were heavily damaged by enemy action and the Cathedral’s Library was
destroyed. Thankfully, the Cathedral itself was not seriously harmed, due to
the bravery of the team of fire watchers, who patrolled the roofs and dealt
with the incendiary bombs dropped by enemy bombers.

Today, the Cathedral stands as a
place where prayer to God has been offered daily for over 1,400 years; nearly
2,000 services are held each year, as well as countless private prayers from
individuals. The Cathedral offers a warm welcome to all visitors – its aim is
to show people Jesus.[1]

About Me

I have studied Theology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Theology, International Relations at the University of London (Queen Mary). My Master's Thesis was published as a book: 'The Aegean Sea Dispute Between Greece and Turkey - The Consequences for NATO and the EU'. For more information see: http://www.akakia.net/el/the-aegean-sea-dispute-between-greece-and-turkey
I have also studied Byzantine Music in Athens and I am currently undertaking a research on the “Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius and its contribution towards Anglican – Orthodox Relations”, at the University of Winchester.
I also represent the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain at the A.E.C.A. If you wish to contact me you can email me: demetrifs1@yahoo.com